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Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Gamestop Will Be Closed on Thanksgiving Day

GameStop has announced the video game retailer’s brick-and-mortar locations will remain closed on Thanksgiving, the latest in a new trend this holiday that sees some retailers opting not to compete as aggressively for sales that day.

Over the past several years, retailers have increasingly pushed back store opening times to kick off the holiday season. First they inched earlier and earlier on “Black Friday,” which is the day after Thanksgiving when the holiday selling season traditionally began. Then, they began to open their doors on the actual Thanksgiving holiday. That prolonged trend even earned a nickname among retail reporters, who were calling it the “Black Friday creep.”

Now there appears some are saying “No thanks” to sales on Turkey Day. GameStop on Monday said the move was made so that the company’s employees, as well as customers, could spend time with their families and friends to enjoy the holiday. When office-supplies retailer Staples earlier this month said it wouldn’t open its doors on that day, it had a nearly identical motivation.

But the question remains: how much is this altruism and how much is this a savvy business move? Opening up on Thanksgiving is costly as retailers need to pay employees holiday wages. The additional costs might not be justified if sales that would have been generated on Black Friday are simply moved up to Thanksgiving. Retailers can also opt to run online-exclusive sales for Thanksgiving, while keeping their physical doors closed.